Lazer Quest

I'd rather adopt the habit of staying the hell away altogether in the very busy Christmas shopping season.

[Leaving aside the quibble over possession vs use] Why not 'illegal e-motorbike'? That's accurate and specific.

I think cyclists and e-bike riders should dismount in the pedestrian area. And everyone, perhaps, adopt the habit of walking on their left hand side of the paths or footways. Especially in the (very busy) Christmas shopping season.

Maybe people do not have the capacity to look out for everyone on the roads because there are so many users squeezed onto small roads in the uk. Brains are not 100% functional, as we know they lapse. Maybe we should have a country wide chat regarding vehicle usage. Maybe radios, satnavs, fones should be removed from cars, or restricted to passenger use. Maybe we have to accommodate homo sapiens are a murderous bunch, so when someone's mown down it can be forgotten easily, after the 'ohmygod' ten minutes. Segregated cycle lanes, or a complete ban on the motor vehicle, lol. Essentially the human race is speeding up and the average cyclist cannot keep up. In the midst of these problems as we are, I personally have to not care about my well being if I wish to continue using bikes. This is a strange and interesting dilemma, yet it sits in harmony with the current zeitgeists twisting as they are.

"Illegal e-bikes" seems like a reasonable phrase to me. It's not strictly accurate if you're very pedantic (it's currently perfectly legal to own and even use such a bike in certain circumstances; it's the use of the bike on public roads that is illegal), but it's good enough. "Illegal (motor)bike" doesn't disambiguate between illegal electric and petrol powered bikes - illegally used dirt bikes etc have been around for decades, long before the current electrification. Whether or not that distinction is relevant depends on the context. In fact, without context, I think I would wonder if "illegal bike" was talking about normal pedal bikes that are somehow illegal (maybe circumventing anti-dumping laws or not complying with relevant safety standards etc.) "Electric motorbike" is technically accurate, but I would only apply it to Sur-Rons or similar - I can see that legally it applies to any non-EAPC ebike, but doesn't fit well with less motorbike-esque versions or homebrew conversions. It also doesn't distinguish between legal and illegal - it's perfectly possible to legally ride an electric motorbike or electric moped, and some people do. So to use "electric motorbike" to mean "illegal electric motorbike" falls into the same trap as using "ebike" to mean "illegal ebike". “Illegally modified e-bikes” is also inaccurate - firstly, many of them are not modified in anyway; you can just buy them like that straight from the internet. And again, there's no law against modification, or owning a ebike that has been modified to no longer be an EAPC. It's the use of an ebike that has been modified to no longer be an EAPC (if it ever was one) on public roads that is illegal. So of all options, "illegal ebike" seems like the least problematic.

@Jem PT Scottish Gaelic - under the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005, public bodies (including the police) have certain duties regarding "promoting, facilitating and supporting the use of the Gaelic language."

@Jem PT Scots Gaelic for Police. And yes, it does seem very similar to the Scots English. ;)

I would use "illegal motorbikes", as there is never such a thing an illegal non-motorised bicycle.

What's with the bi-lingual 'Police' on the Scottish Police van?? (Or is the lower line 'Glaswegian'??

@stulemanski "... if drivers decided it was okay..."